Dirty Dining: What's Lurking at the Restaurant

If your favorite restaurant had been issued a warning by the Health Department for rat droppings on the countertops, would you want to know about it (uh, I would—just so I'd know how fast to run from the place!)? Today, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nonprofit nutrition and food-safety watchdog group, came out with a disturbing report. Find out if you need to be worried.

A few examples: roaches scampering across a Pittsburgh kitchen; chicken salad not properly chilled in Atlanta; and mouse droppings in a Minneapolis ice machine. Appetizing, eh?

Because it can be difficult to track down these reports in some cities (in Pittsburgh, for example, you have to write a written request to access the info), the CSPI is calling for stricter laws requiring restaurants to display their reports in their front windows—that way, you'll know about the mouse droppings before, you decide to, say, order an iced tea.